Experts missed my lymphoma for two years, cancer patient reveals

Patient Charlotte Cox with partner Francesca Woodhouse

A young Londoner whose lymphoma was misdiagnosed for two years aims to raise awareness of blood cancers.

Charlotte Cox, 30, made multiple visits to a GP and A&E before her symptoms, which included bloating and back pain, were recognised as being caused by follicular lymphoma. She is now in remission after receiving chemotherapy and immunotherapy but has been told the cancer is incurable. “At any time it could come back,” she said.

Facebook’s European chief Nicola Mendelsohn revealed in February that she had been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma.

Ms Cox, who lives in Tooting, has founded charity Lymphoma Out Loud to increase awareness among under-thirties. She was diagnosed in 2015, aged 27. “I spent two years going to the GP and A&E with symptoms,” she said. “I was told I was too young for there to be anything wrong. I was given medication for IBS [irritable bowel syndrome].”

Only after she was forced to curtail a holiday in Thailand, leading her sister to take her to a different GP, did a scan reveal a 15cm tumour in her abdomen. Another was growing behind her heart and she had a lump in her neck. “I was having excruciating back pain. The tumour was pressing on my spine.

“I had three years of treatment. A month after I was diagnosed I found out it was the most common cancer in young adults. Until I was diagnosed I had no idea about lymphoma. If I had known the symptoms I would have been more confident going to the GP and getting to know the changes in my body. I think my outcome could have been different. I was made to feel stupid and eventually stopped going [to the GP].”

Ms Cox had chemotherapy at a hospital in Tunbridge Wells followed by two years on immunotherapy drug rituximab. Her treatment ended last July. She said: “I want to talk to young people and share my story. I want to encourage people to get to know their body and have the confidence to go to the GP.”

Blood cancer is the fifth most common cancer in Britain, affecting 240,000, and the third biggest cancer killer. There are more than 100 types but the main ones are leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. A report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Blood Cancer called for initiatives to raise awareness of the disease to improve early diagnosis.

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